178 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.
which would give them the power to regulate prices to the exclusion
of independent dealers.
The meat industry—For about 18 months prior to April, 1913,
there did exist in Argentina a combination among the meat-freezing
companies established here, whose entire trade consisted in exporting
 frozen and chilled meat to the London market. The participants
in this combination were the following firms, viz:
Las Palmas Produce Co. (British ownership).
Smithfield-Argentine Meat Co. (British).
River Plate Fresh Meat Co. (British).
Cia. Sansinena de Carnes Congeladas (Anglo-Argentine). :
Frigorifico Argentino  Anglo-Argentine).
Cia. La Blanca de Carnes Raia American).
La Plata Cold Storage Co. (American).
The agreement which existed between these companies was to limit
the output in proportion to the capabilities of each works and the
amount of money invested. In the early part of 1913 the La Blanca
Co., backed with American capital provided by Armour, Morris,
and Swift, added new buildings and installations to their plant,
thereby increasing the capacity of their output, and demanded of the
other companies that their share of the output stipulated in the agreement
 be allowed to increase, to which the other companies objected.
The La Blanca Co. then decided to no longer adhere to the agreement,
 and withdrew on April 5, 1913. The La Plata Cold Storage
Co., which was also primarily a Swift (American) enterprise, also
withdrew.
For a time thereafter there followed a severe price cutting in the
London market between the two American companies and the five
English companies. For several months the two i room companies
shipped on an average of 53,000 quarters of frozen and chilled beef
gach week to London, when that market was capable of receiving
only about 45,000 quarters. The result was the glutting of the
London market, with a radical drop in the price of meat, while all
the companies here were selling at a , of from $30 to $40 Argentine
paper ($1 equivalent to $0.4246 United States currency) on each
head of cattle shipped. It was contended by the English companies
that the American firms could afford to accept these losses in view of
the heavy financial backing which they had, until such time when
they had complete control of the business and could then dictate
their own prices, while the American firms claimed that although
they had losses on the meat exports, these were generally offset 3
utilizing all the by-products from which profits were made.
About this time the five English and Anglo-Argentine companies
sent a joint note to the minister of agriculture of the Argentine Republic,
 asking for the intervention of the National Government to
prevent an excessive exportation of meat by the two concerns connected
 with the American Beef Trust, the La Blanca Co. and the La
Plata Cold Storage Co. This note contained the following:
We are ready to produce proofs that the prices at which Argentine beef is
sold in the English market, relatively to those which have been paid here for
steers from the beginning of April, cause to all the frigorifico (meat-freezing
plants) companies, without exception, a loss oscillating between $30 and $40
Argentine paper on every animal exported. It is therefore evident that this
rommercinl pelicy, tending to cause, artificially, losses so Important that they
will be supported only by those who deliberately produce them, is going to